The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will receive the largest gift of art in its history from cosmetics magnate Leonard A. Lauder, the museum announced Tuesday. The collection includes work by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris and Fernand Léger, is valued at $1.1 billion and is considered one of the foremost collections of Cubist works in the world.

The Windhover Foundation — founded by the late Harry and Betty Quadracci and run today by their children — announced Saturday it has issued a $500,000 challenge grant as part of Milwaukee Repertory Theater's drive to repair its sinking, 115-year-old building.

In February, the Rep made public its problem with the building at 108 E. Wells St. The water table beneath the Patty & Jay Baker Theater Complex has dropped, exposing wooden pilings to rot and deterioration. The theater complex is home to the Quadracci Powerhouse Theater, Stiemke Theater and the Stackner Cabaret. | May 10, 2014»Read Full Article(5)

In his robustly joyous poem "I Hear America Singing," Walt Whitman imagines everyday Americans "singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs," embodying an America as expansive and inclusive as the continent itself.

In Milwaukee-born Daron Hagen's virtuosic but also claustrophobic piece of the same name, Hagen (who also handles stage direction) risks reducing America to the lowest common denominator, in which difference is squashed so that harmony can prevail. Written for Skylight Music Theatre, it was unveiled in Skylight's Studio Theatre space Friday night. | May 10, 2014»Read Full Article

Milwaukee's Water Street Brewery will open its fourth brewpub, this one in Oak Creek's Drexel Town Square development.

The brewpub will be built at Drexel and Howell avenues, in the mixed-use development on a former Delphi Corp. auto parts factory site. The new location was announced at a groundbreaking ceremony this morning, according to a statement from Water Street Brewery. | May 10, 2014»Read Full Blog Post(3)

If all 19th-century opera composers had understood the alchemy of creating a timeless work people would flock to hear more than a century after its creation, operas like Puccini's "La Bohème" wouldn't be the least bit special.

But they didn't. "La Bohème" is one of a rather short list of operas that fill concert halls and, if done well, leave audiences standing and cheering. | May 10, 2014»Read Full Article